Paul Verlaine

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface / Nicolas Valazza

Translator’s Note / Samuel N. Rosenberg

Chronology

Part 1: The Parnassian Years

First Poems

From Poèmes saturniens [Saturnine Poems]

From Les Amies [Girlfriends]

From Fêtes galantes [Gallant Festivities]

Poems Contemporaneous with Poèmes saturniens, Les Amies,

and Fêtes galantes

From La Bonne Chanson [The Good Song]

Part 2: Under the Spell of Rimbaud

First Encounters

From Album zutique

From Romances sans paroles [Songs Without Words]

Poems Contemporaneous with Romances sans paroles

After the Shooting

Part 3: From Prison to Conversion

In Prison (Poems from Cellulairement [Cellularly] and

Other Poems)

After the Conversion (Poems from Sagesse [Wisdom]

and Other Poems)

From Amour [Love] and Other Poems

From Bonheur [Happiness]

From Liturgies intimes [Intimate Liturgies]

Part 4: The Last Years

From Dédicaces [Dedications]

From Chansons pour Elle [Songs for Her]

From Odes en son honneur [Odes in Her Honor] and Élégies

From Dans les limbes [In Limbo]

In England (1893)

From Épigrammes [Epigrams]

From Invectives [Invective]

From Chair [Flesh]

From Biblio-sonnets

Late Uncollected Poems

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index of Titles and First Lines

Index of Proper Nouns

“Sam Rosenberg and Nicolas Valazza have created a magnificent and much-needed edition of Paul Verlaine’s work. The musicality of Rosenberg’s translation is extraordinary, capturing the peculiar artistry of Verlaine and providing Anglophone readers with the sense of ecstasy normally reserved for those who can read his work in its original French. Valazza’s painstaking work on this edition ensures that this tome will resonate widely, and, moreover, remain one of the great classics of the Verlaine corpus, in any language.”

—Robert F. Barsky, author of Undocumented Immigrants an Era of Arbitrary Law: The Flight and Plight of People Deemed “Illegal”